by Michele | Nov 13, 2024 | Advent, Community, Learning Opportunity, News, Regional Council, Resources
Free Resource
for an Advent Small Group Study
We are offering every Community of Faith a gift this Advent season! By means of a regional subscription you can access an Advent Small Group Study created by:
The Prayer Bench entitled Advent Longing
We hope this will be a gift for busy ministers and lay leaders in this Advent season who want a faith formation opportunity for their community of faith.
This Advent Small Group Study invites participants to nurture longing as a powerful spiritual gift through an imaginative pilgrimage in an old-growth forest. It encourages us to notice longing in our ordinary days, recognize its gifts during times of desolation and reclamation, and welcome “thin spaces”—those moments of connection, support, and hope. In the context of a planetary crisis, we explore how to activate Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love in the world God loves.
What You Receive with this Downloadable Resource
- Complete Leader’s Guide for three Advent sessions with ideas for Opening, Singing, Movement or Sound Prayers, Conversation prompts, a Group Spiritual Practice, and Closing.
- Three 8-10-minute audio recordings.
- Three scripts of the audio recordings to download and copy so participants can follow along.
- Access to a Prayer Bench webpage with all the study materials, downloadable image for social media promotion, customizable poster for the series, and other resources related to the study.
Click here to register and receive the free resource here:
https://prayerbench.ca/regional-license-for-advent-small-group-study/
Advent Small Group Study Taster on Zoom
An introduction to the Advent Small Group Study for Leaders with Janice MacLean of Prayer Bench, offering background information and hints for leading the process. Please download the resource and come with any comments or questions for use in your setting.
We are offering two sessions (the same content just different times and days) as follows:
Antler River Watershed, Horseshoe Falls and Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council
Friday, November 22nd at 1:00pm
Click link to register and receive the Zoom link:
https://united-church.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAudequpj4qHtUr_VJD6D436RejF-lPoQO7
OR with
Eastern Central Ontario Regional Council
Monday, November 25 at 7:00 pm
Click link to register and receive the zoom link:
https://ecorcuccan.ca/eco-rc-2024-advent-small-group-study/
by Michele | Oct 4, 2024 | Affirming, Anti-Racism, Camps & Retreats, Children & Youth, Community, Events, Learning Opportunity, LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people, News, Regional Council, Social Justice, The United Church of Canada
Regional Councils of ARW, HF and WOW in partnership with The Hub and Trinity UC Kitchener-
Thursday November 28th, 2024, 6:30-8:30 (all participants are asked to arrive at 6:40).
Background: Post-pandemic, Youth leaders struggle to put together groups. A message often heard from youth in the church is that what’s being offered doesn’t work for them. Being an intercultural church includes finding ways to bridge communication between different age groups/generations.
Goal– To offer a forum that brings together youth and Elders in the church– a forum that allows the two groups to hear one another and be heard by one another, and to consider what might be the Spirit’s invitation to the church for youth ministry at this time.
FISHBOWL PROCESS:
8 Youth (teens to twenty-somethings) and 8 Elders (45+) from WOW, HF and ARW Regional Councils and facilitators will gather via Zoom.
- Discussion questions will invite each to share and listen to experiences of their own youth faith formation, and hopes and challenges for youth ministry then and now.
- On each question, using the Zoom spotlight feature to focus on one group of eight:
- Youth will invite one another to share, while the Elders listen.
- Places will be switched, and the Elders will invite one another to share while the Youth listen.
- For some questions, the order might be reversed, with Elders sharing first
- After two rounds of sharing in separate groups, Youth and Elders will have an opportunity to reflect together as one group.
Each group will be invited to reflect on what they have heard and consider possible next steps.
Participants will be given questions for reflection and feedback, to be submitted in writing following the session.
This is a cross-cultural listening event, and a pilot project. This session will not focus on problem solving or planning. The focus of this event is to listen and learn about one another as a first step of re-visioning youth ministry in ARW, HF and WOW in this post-pandemic time.
An HONORARIUM of $105 is available for participants who are not otherwise paid for their time in this discussion.
To apply, complete the Application Form :
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=qLUYz3gmEUCTEhXw9xV1dPBWSFWIXSNPila5mgKiAchUM0NLV0kyWUtVM1JXUEcyOUw4QlVaRlVDUS4u
Application deadline November 18, 2024
For more information contact
Thérèse Samuel tsamuel@united-church.ca
Kathy Douglas kdouglas@united-church.ca
Adam Cresswell – hubleadership@gmail.com
Aimee Belanger at youthevents@hubcommunity.ca
by Michele | Oct 3, 2024 | Affirming, Anti-Racism, Community, Events, Learning Opportunity, Mission & Service, News, Regional Council, Resources, Social Justice, The United Church of Canada
Antler River Watershed Regional Council
A Time of Renewal: Rebuild, Reconnect, Revitalize
Welcomes you to the 2024 Fall Gathering!
Online via Zoom
Friday October 25th: Time 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Saturday October 26th: Time 9:00am – 2:00pm
The Celebration of Ministry will be In-person and Livestreamed on YouTube
Antler River Watershed Regional Council Fall Online Meeting Information
Register for the ARWRC Fall Meeting Now
by Michele | Sep 23, 2024 | Learning Opportunity, News, Pastoral Relations, Resources, Staff
‘The Basics’: Ministry & Personnel Committee Workshops
Online by Zoom, Upcoming dates: October 3rd, December 5th, February 6th, April 3rd
2-4pm with Micol Cottrell, Minister, Pastoral Relations
Ordered ministers and designated lay ministers while in paid accountable ministry positions are office holders within The United Church of Canada. While there may be elements similar to employment, the essential nature of the relationship is a covenant.
~ Statement on Ministry in The United Church of Canada (2012)
New members are often elected to the vital Ministry & Personnel Committee near the start of the year, although M&P Committee membership can change for many other reasons throughout the year.
The Basics will help a new member learn the essentials of this crucial role. More experienced members of M&P Committees are invited to take this workshop as a refresher with their team, and keep up with changing United Church practices and policies. This workshop is open to members from Western Ontario Waterways, Antler River Watershed and Horseshoe Falls Regional Councils!
Please Note: each member of your M&P Committee attending this workshop is required to register.
In your Confirmation Email, you will receive the Zoom link and material in preparation for the meeting to make the most of our time together. If you have questions about the content, please email Micol Cottrell, Minister, Pastoral Relations, at MCottrell@united-church.ca, or better yet, write down the questions to bring with you.
by Michele | Sep 16, 2024 | Community, Events, Funds & Grants, Global Community, Learning Opportunity, News, Regional Council, Resources, Staff, Stewardship, The United Church of Canada
Ask An Expert – Answer Session:
❓❓❓
Join us on Wednesday evening for a special one hour Zoom event.
Wednesday, September 18th, 2024 from 7-8pm
We’ve been asked some great questions over the summer, come and hear the answers! 👂👂👂
Some of the experts include Mark Laird, Executive Minister, Brenna Baker, Community of Faith Stewarship Support and hosted by Rev. Michelle Owens.
by Michele | Sep 13, 2024 | Affirming, Anti-Racism, Children & Youth, Community, Events, Global Community, Indigenous Justice, Learning Opportunity, LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people, News, Resources, Social Justice, The United Church of Canada
Greetings Siblings in Christ,
It has come to our attention that across-Canada anti-2S-LGBTQIA+ protest marches are to be held on Friday, September 20, 2024. The organization responsible, Hands Off Our Kids (https://handsoffourkids.ca/) states their mission is to:“safeguard children from gender ideology teachings, sexual indoctrination, exposure to explicit sexual content, ensuring that parental consent remains paramount.” They also aim to “protect our children from thought control and will ensure their religious freedoms are protected.”
Their rhetoric has been strongly anti-2S-LGBTQIA+ and especially anti-Trans in the past. This group has worked to exert influence in school boards in Ontario and beyond, spreading harmful misinformation and opposing SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) education in schools, again with misinformation. For information about SOGI click HERE.
These marches are planned across Canada on September 20, including the following locations across our tri-regional councils:
WOW: Owen Sound, Meaford, Hanover, Orangeville and Kitchener
HF: Mississauga (2 locations), Oakville, Milton, Hamilton
ARW : London, Windsor
More details and updates can be found on their website: https://handsoffourkids.ca/resources/
A constantly updated list of in-person presence and counter-protests is available here. The private Facebook group 1 Million Voices for Inclusion, which also hosts community-specific chats and planning, is an excellent resource for ideas and support.
Christ calls us to be a peace-seeking, truth-speaking,
love-focused presence in the face of these movements.
How can you be active?
Faith-Filled Responses
- Send letters of encouragement to school staff and to any student group or individuals who need support;
- deliver homemade real church cookies to those groups/individuals;
- use your church signage and lawn to send PIE messaging;
- write letters to the editor;
- learn about SOGI and what it really is, as opposed to the myths spread about it;
- support school board candidates and members who are supportive of 2SLGBTQIA+ human rights.
- Offer support to transgender, Two Spirit, and gender-diverse people who are being targeted by this movement.
Faith-Focussed responses:
- Pray
- Re-read all the radical bible verses about God’s all- encompassing love.
- And be PIE— public, intentional, and explicit—about the fact that you’re people of faith supporting 2S-LGBTQIA+ people (using your best judgement about when and how, of course).
When we show up in a positive way, it is noticed!
When discussing with your congregation:
- Know that it is possible that well-meaning people in your congregation may be supporting these movements. Leading with language of “hate” in this instance can alienate the well-meaning people that you wish to connect with.
- While the “Hands Off Our Kids” and related movements are understood as hate movements, and that is an accurate description of the impact of these movements, not everyone who shows up in support of these marches is doing so out of hate.
- Name and honour how this harms people in 2S-LGBTQIA+ communities without conveying an assumption that this harm was intended. Intentions and impacts are often very different, but a well-meaning intention does not erase hurtful and harmful impacts.
- Offer grounded information to counteract harmful mis-information.
If you are making plans or have concerns, please contact me, Thérèse Samuel, Minister Right Relations and Social Justice, and my colleague John Egger, Minister, Social Justice.
Thanks to Northern Spirit Regional Council and clergy from Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council for sharing information that helped in the creation of parts of this resource.
